


Take me with you

by Wanderer (Straggler)



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Beach Scene, Gen, Major Character Injury, Other, Paralysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-27
Updated: 2012-04-27
Packaged: 2017-11-04 10:02:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Straggler/pseuds/Wanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Later, if anybody cared enough to ask, it’s not the loss of legs that bother him – it’s everything else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take me with you

 

It takes him a moment to focus on the man kneeling above him, one hand around his shoulder in an embrace, fingers on his neck like a caress. It takes him another moment to realize he’s not dead, that the person he’s seeing isn’t an angel, but Erik instead.

 

The sun is horrendously bright, with its ray of light shining down on them and gleaming off Erik’s helmet like a halo. Erik isn’t an angel, or perhaps he is: an Angel of Death, here to take him away after his mental tryst with Shaw down in the submarine.

 

He knows what it’s like to die; he’s felt it more than once, and it scares and hurts him each and every single time he experiences it. Charles knows what happened with the coin won’t be the last time he will ever feel that way, but it is by far the most painful experience he’s ever had and he can’t think properly or coherently through the haze. He thinks maybe it’s because Erik, his friend, was the cause of it that pain makes it hurt all the more.

 

It’s not the psychological pain that tears and renders his heart and soul to pieces. It’s that combined with the bullet through his spine that completely shatters everything he’s been fighting for with every fiber of his entire being his whole life. Just like that, he feels the effort of all his years bleed across the sand.

 

When Erik moves enough that Charles isn’t entirely blinded by the sun, he finds himself blinded by the helmet instead. Erik isn’t there even though he can see him, even though he can hear his words through his lips, and feel his hands holding onto his strongly. But _Erik_ isn’t _there_.

 

_Where are you, my friend?_

 

Everything passes in a blur of colors. There’s so much blue in the sky and grey in his eyes. Everything is dwarfed by the helmet and he can’t see behind it or beyond it. He can’t see Erik at all, but he knows Erik is there, somewhere, hiding.

 

_Where are you, my friend?_

 

Charles is terrified. He’s lost sight of his friend, and he’s about to lose his sister, too, whose halo burns a brilliant red like the Archangel Uriel. He can’t ask her to stay with him. He could, but he won’t. Still, he can’t help his twitch, his need to run after her in search of her, when he suddenly can’t feel her anymore, either.

 

_Where are you, my friends?_

 

Charles is shaking with fear and agony as fracture upon fracture splits his heart, soul and body into pieces and disappear with the rolling tide, some carried away in the passing wind.

 

The sun is still horrendously bright above him, but all he can see are shadowed faces ringed with halos that pale in comparison to his Angels gone. Erik isn’t there; he can’t see him, or hear him, or feel him. He’s gone. Completely and utterly.

 

_My friend, where are you?_

 

**Author's Note:**

> If anybody is at all interested, I also have a Tumblr account. It doesn't have a whole lot, though there are a few extra short fics in there that you won't find here on AO3. Have at it!
> 
> LINK - http://straggling-wanderer.tumblr.com/


End file.
